Most popular online payment methods in the Netherlands

When you are running an ecommerce website in the Netherlands, you can’t avoid offering iDeal. For years, this local payment method is the most popular online payment method in the Netherlands. A new graphic shows the other popular options you should offer as an online retailer.

In collaboration with iDeal and online retail association Thuiswinkel.org, GfK has researched the payment methods in the Netherlands. This eCommerce Payment Monitor shows that the share of iDeal has increased to 56 percent. This means that among the more than 142 million online purchases done last year, 80 million were paid using iDeal. That’s a growth of 22 percent compared to 2014, when 66 million purchases were completed using this method. Aside from iDeal’s growth, credit cards and PayPal also saw their shares increase.

In 2014, about 13 million online purchases were paid with a credit card, while last year the amount has increased to 17 million, a growth of 24 percent. The credit card now accounts for 12 percent of all online purchases in the Netherlands. It’s bigger than PayPal, which grew by 34 percent to 7 million purchased paid this way. The increased share of iDeal, credit cards and PayPal are at the cost of the more traditional payment methods, such as direct debit and Acceptgiro.

Piet Mallekoote, director of Betaalvereniging Nederland, expects traditional payment methods to further decrease in usage. “We have started a pilot project so we can find out if iDeal can be extended with QR codes. This way entrepreneurs can offer their customers a safe and easy post-pay method during pick-up or delivery.”

More purchases via mobile
The study also found that the number of purchases completed via a smartphone has increased. In 2015, the Dutch used their mobile phone on 5.8 million online purchase, while this number increased by 53 percent to reach 8.9 purchases last year.